And, perhaps even more importantly, in 1943 De Leeuw paid salary to families of train drivers. “In September 1943 there was the Battle of Arnhem. We all thought: now we will be liberated, this is the end of the war,” says De Leeuw. “At that time, train drivers had to bring a lot of stuff from the Netherlands to Germany. They also thought the war was over, so they went on strike en masse. But to our great sadness, the war was not over yet. That meant that all those train drivers had to go into hiding, because if the Germans found them they would be captured – or worse.”
Chris de Leeuw (97) brought money to families of people in hiding during the war: ‘They didn’t know whether I was friend or foe’
